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HELP Electrocompaniet stole Christmas

What a mess:
After finally deciding that spending money on the latest EMC-1 parts mod, I contacted Electrocompaniet's distributor back in October to arrange to bring my EMC-1 MkII to him directly in PA so as to avoid RT shipping risks and expense for this 50 pounder. All was set for a Christmas week mod, as I was to be in NJ visiting my relatives that last week.
I called on Christmas eve to arrange a drop-off time, and was told that Christmas Day noon would be fine, but that I had to arrange the deal through a dealer! Yikes! So I remembered Fathers & Sons and called them, arranging for the paperwork and profit to be credited through/to them. Fine. So I drove 2 hours through a nasty winter storm to arrive at Warshaw's house, where he said he'd NOT perform the mod if my EMC-1 didn't have a serial number on it, as there was a grey-market guy in New York who sold a few of these this year. I assured him that mine indeed had a serial number, was produced in spring '01, and bought used by me in summer '01. He said OK, and lugged the player into his house, saying he'd call me in a couple of days to pick it up. Great!..............
I returned to NJ and watched the storm intensify....
Two days later I called to arrange a pick-up hour, and Alan told me that he did NOT perform the mod because the player had been originally sold by a Danish dealer, and NOT through him, so he had made a decision to NOT support any players not originally sold thorough him. No warranty repars, parts, nor mods!..............
I was stunned, couldn't convince him to make an exception since he had never asked me to provide a serial number beforehand, and I went through a total of a half-day of driving through a storm to accomplish this mod.
He just told me to come pick it up at my convenience. I glumly arrived on Saturday and retrieved my untouched puppy, where Alan said that unfortunately I had to share the victimization of the gray-market. I asked if I should contact a Danish dealer to see if a board-swap could be done (of course thinking he didn't really know the answer), but he thought that Electrocompaniet wouldn't support my player either! I asked with some incredulity what was going to happen with all the players that people have when they move from one country to another (!), but he said that this policy was the only way they have of penalyzing the gray market.... I suggested that in THIS CASE he should have installed the mod because of his lack of due diligence in assessing the production/sales history of this particular CDP, ESPECIALLY given my enormous effort in delivering it to his doorstep on Christmas Day.... I left sadly but gracefully.
WHAT SHOULD I DO? I contacted the Danish dealer but he's not responded. Should I contact Electrocompaniet directly and try to arrange a board swap or purchase the parts mod "kit" and instakllation directions (I'm pretty familiar with boards and soldering)? Should Alan have acted differently? Isn't the world getting small enough so that internationally-sold products should have protected lives independent of sales point?
PLEASE HELP!
A Happy and safe New Year to all!
Ernie
subaruguru
zaikesman
3,017 posts
 
Well, for once I must actually disagree with my friend Bob B. :-) Audiogon has an international audience, and I would think that anyone with a proprietary interest in the high end market, such as a manufacturer or distributor, would at least have a passing familiarity with it's existence by now. I also don't think that "permanent damage" has necessarily been done yet. Although Ernie's story has an undeniable touch of the dramatic about it, and it's generated a fair amount of heat around here, I for one will be happy to state for the record that - depending on the ultimate resolution reached by the parties involved - nothing which has transpired so far is in my mind so incorrectable as to cause me to pre-emptively disregard or be unduly wary of the EC brand in the future. All things are still possible in this situation for the time being, and I trust Ernie would second that.

P.S. - I am interested in learning, Ernie: How many views so far on this thread with around 90 responses as of now (albeit by many fewer than 90 members)?
subaruguru OP
1,375 posts
 
Zaikesman: 569 views. What's puzzling to me though is that the number of views of my system (The Sanctuary) has spiked too! Can't account for that, except collateral interest.
Ohnhwy61: again, I'm a REALLY slow typist, and wish that NO pertinent facts be deleted. I'm gathering that this is an important matter for EC and that they should have the benefit of our collective feedback in toto.

Unfortunate news:
I received this morning the following response from Heiz Preiss (the referred independent EC serviceperson and hoped-for US originator of this analog-parts-swap mod:
Hi Ernest,
big disappointment for you---I have had no contacts with Electrocompaniet since 1999, the company just broke off our relationship without explanation. Repeated attempts via Email on my part remain unanswered. I have no service info on any of the new stuff and frankly do not even know what you are talking about. My Electro service is now limited to the older amps and pre amps. Cd players came out after our relations were severed.
I'm sorry for the bad news.
Heinz......

As well, I just found out that MY email (above) to Per at EC has bounced back undelivered. Darn! Guess I'll try again. Does anyone know how to reach EC except by "elcomp@electrocompaniet.no"?
Also, I don't know how to direct to a "url". I'm just an analog guy I guess....
Perhaps someone else could emal them in parallel and direct them here, or to contact me...or their distributor, as they deem fit.
Thanks again.
Blizzard conditions here in New England, and I have theater tix tonight. Figures....
paulwp
585 posts
 
Man, I am itcing to get my hands on an Electrocompaniet. At first, I was only atttracted to their products because of their mellifluous brand name - if the name sounds good, the products gotta sound good is my theory. But now it seems, they are so hard to get ahold of and so exclusive, if I get one I'll be pretty special.

Oh, hmm, how did those cdps get into the hands of that gray market dealer?
chichiuno
118 posts
 
I buy alot of greymarket video and camera gear from those dealers that you see from NY. Most you see are those strickly mailorder ads in Magazines. Most are located in Brooklyn Ny, by the shipping piers. I went to alot of these
middle of no where hole in the walls, where they do not allow customers go (find to their Secret locations (but wad of cash in hand, makes them very weak, lol). You can get brand new gear, with a third party warentee" Being aware it's grey, but new, I am aware if the product fails, or needs repair, I will take a loss. so this if figured in to the "SAVINGS". Being that I always had very good luck with Electronics, Warentee on such never bothered me.
I did however had a Canon lens go to crap, costed me about $450, I just threw it a way. with high End Audio gear, I am carefull with, usually on a purchase, I will obtain Serial numbers, and contact the manufacture yo find status of warentee, and it is legit, before purchasing. It is Buyer beware, before purchasing ANY product used or New, do some research on the item, First step it to ask seller for a serial number, their way of a responce will give you a good insight what your dealing with....
Could be worse, the Player could be on a Hot list, then you would of taken a really good loss. As the player would of been returned to the rightful owner..... check out Tag McLaren site!

http://www.tagmclaren.com/great/sounds.asp

So look at the bright side, you still have a player!
duanegoosen
355 posts
 
Sean's response to Sos's first post seems perfectly on target to me. The warranty verbage is completely moot. This problem exists primarily because one arm of EC wants to make sure that their cut of the profit stays as big as possible above all else. It looks like they've run into and tested the boundries in this instance.
I don't know Sos, but he might try to employ better critical thinking skills when posting in a contentious environment. Analogy is the weakest form of epistemology, and the Covrette comparison he used is as flawed and poorly thought out as any I've seen on this site. The EC unit in question here is not a used Corvette and there is no warranty issue. There is also nothing remotely analagous to a rolled back odometer in this case.
Generally, dealers and distributors do not design or build components, they have value when they can make intelligent observations, offer sound advice, or make a product available. In short, the real worth of a middleman in this industry is predicated on the quality of service he provides. So far it doesn't look like Ernie has received anything resembling good service. Hope raising the body count can help EC get this right.
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